Where Was the Israeli Military When Hamas Attacked?
The Israeli government had determined that the loosely organized civilian guard, known as Kitat Konnenut, would serve as the first line of defense in the towns and villages near the border. But the guardsmen had different standards of training depending on who was in charge. For years, they warned that some of their units were […]
Skepticism Grows Over Israel’s Ability to Dismantle Hamas
Standing before a gray backdrop decorated with Hamas logos and emblems of a gunman that commemorate the bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Osama Hamdan, the organization’s representative in Lebanon, professed no concern about his Palestinian faction being dislodged from Gaza. “We are not worried about the future of the Gaza Strip,” he recently told […]
How Israel Secretly Propped Up Hamas
Just weeks before Hamas launched the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the head of Mossad arrived in Doha, Qatar, for a meeting with Qatari officials. For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister […]
Arab Citizens of Israel Released in Deals With Hamas Fear a Backlash
About one-fifth of Israelis are Arabs whose families were living in what would become Israel before the state was founded in 1948. Unlike the Palestinian refugees who ended up in the West Bank, Gaza and neighboring Arab countries, this group remained in Israel and received citizenship. While they carry Israeli passports, vote and can exercise […]
Is Israel’s Military Strategy to Eradicate Hamas Working?
Israel blames the high death toll — 12,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, a number that includes both civilians and combatants — in part on Hamas’s decision to hide its military fortifications and command centers in residential neighborhoods and hospitals like Al-Shifa. But U.S. officials said Israel’s rapid decision to launch ground operations in […]
Hamas Assailants on Oct. 7 Ambushed Israeli Bomb Shelters
Yossi Landau, the southern region commander for ZAKA, a search-and-rescue organization, entered one bomb shelter on Route 232. Inside, he said, he found about 20 burned bodies fused together, adding, “It was difficult to separate them.” Ms. Abud; her boyfriend, Eliya Cohen, 26; her nephew Amit Ben Avida, 19; and his girlfriend, Karin Schwartzman, 20, […]
Opinion | The Two Things Worrying U.S. Military Officials About Israel and Hamas
Step back far enough, and you can see exactly what is driving so much geopolitics today: Ukraine is trying to join the West. Israel is trying to join a new Middle East. And Russia and Iran have teamed up to try to block both. Unfortunately, the new G.O.P. House speaker, Mike Johnson, is either too […]
How Years of Israeli Failures on Hamas Led to a Devastating Attack
Israeli officials have promised a full investigation into what went wrong. Even before that inquiry, it is clear the attacks were possible because of a cascade of failures over recent years — not hours, days or weeks. A New York Times examination, based on dozens of interviews with Israeli, Arab, European and American officials, as […]